My daughter was put on Zyrtec when the Claritin didn’t do the job any more (she’s since graduated to Allegra, but that’s prescription only). She had no drowsiness with Zyrtec, in fact she had severe insomnia so we had to switch her dosage to the morning. She’s weird, though 
The rest of the family takes Zyrtec (well, generic) and we haven’t had any major problem with drowsiness but I’ve definitely heard it can have that effect.
Beware of some of these drugs causing your blood pressure to spike. I was taking Claritin-D for several weeks, when all of a sudden it was giving me severe headaches from high blood pressure. (I already have been diagnosed with HBP, and take meds for it.)
I switched to plain Claritin (Walgreen’s generic Wal-itin) and a prescription nasal spray NasaCort. They work pretty well.
That’s because the Claritin D has a decongestant - used to be pseudephedrine, now probably that watered-down stuff that doesn’t work - and that is known to cause problems with BP.
This is one of many reasons we don’t like combination medications.
May I hitch onto this OP to ask a related question? Those of you who use OTC allergy products, do you have any experiences with their effects on skin reactions?
About once every three years or so I get what looks like contact dermatitis only it starts with a plain old mosquito bite or similar, then spreads out into a horrible collection of I-don’t-know-how-to-describe but icky pustules. It seems to be stress related, or in any event I do not react to mosquito bites this way most of the time. It’s as though my autoimmune system is just waiting for that one little thing to push it over into a nuke 'em from orbit reaction – but only sometimes. It never involves respiratory symptoms, just a skin reaction.
Still, I would like to have something OTC other than Benadryl, as it makes me so stupid and slow I am afraid to drive or really do anything. Anybody have any experience with the OTC antihistamines for skin reactions? Or is it more or less the same?
Claritin-D and Zyrtec-D are still pseudoephedrine, although a lot of the others have gone to phenylephrine. Plain Claritin and Zyrtec are safe for people with high blood pressure.
Oh, yeah. I get the same sort of reactions occasionally, both from skin contact and from eating some stuff I’m allergic to. Latest bout is clearing up on my leg, actually. (at its worst, I had it described as “sleeves of pus”. lovely.)
Unfortunately, Benadryl has the best results for me. And my dad used to work for a drug company, so I’ve tried lots of OTC and prescrip alternatives that he’s suggested. I usually find that the Benadryl doesn’t make me quite as drowsy if I’m having a strong allergic reaction, for what that’s worth.
However, I’d actually recommend using a topical ointment, like a hydrocortisone cream. If you can manage to get a dermatologist appointment while you’re having a reaction, you can probably get some stuff that’ll really do wonders, whether OTC or prescrip. Mine proclaimed my reaction “atypical dermatitis” or somesuch for my insurance, and prescribed a cheap ointment the pharmacy mixed up that does the job quick.
Bumping to say that Claritin is some kind of miracle drug! That’s probably a big ‘duh’ for a lot of you, but I never tried it before and now I feel like I have my life back again. The red, itchy eyes are healing now (I rubbed them in my sleep and tore them up pretty good) and I don’t sneeze constantly. THANK YOU for responding to my post.
I take the loratadine for my skin and it helps a lot. I get rashes up and down my arms and legs and it helps keep it under control.
Claritin works great for me, but the Wallgreens generic did NOT have the same effect. Anyone else have this problem? I always thought generics were supposed to have the same ingredients, but…in this case, I can’t think that they do.
I am going to guess it was mostly psychosomatic. Even Claritin works on the placebo effect to a degree.
I would accept that (I am not above admitting that placebos work on me) except that the first time I took it and I felt the effects, I absolutely refused to consider that it was the generic Claritin. Because the ingredients are the same! I was visiting a friend and spent the whole day completely spaced and complaining about how whacked out I felt and I couldn’t figure out why. I genuinely had no idea what was happening - I thought maybe I hadn’t gotten enough sleep or something. I didn’t take Claritin or any of generics of it regularly at this time (I had picked it up only because my friend has cats) and it was awhile before I had occasion to use it again and - bam, same thing. That’s when I realized it was the medication.
OTOH, I used to take actual Claritin regularly and never had any negative side effects. (This was when I lived in California, where I grew up and where I am allergic to everything. When I moved to the Midwest, my allergies disappeared.)
So I don’t get it.
I’m just now getting used to that spaced out feeling. I just started taking it Friday, and Saturday I was sort of a mess. Didn’t feel like doing anything, was vaguely grumpy and tired, and felt sort of woozy.
You know, just like every other Saturday.
Coscto has a claritin equivalent called Allerclear that’s, like $12 for 300 doses. That’s good enough for most of the year, but when things were really bad, I went to my hidden stash of Patanol. (Don’t blow off eyedrops, they’re surprisingly effective at solving the problem at the root.
I jumped for joy when I discovered Patanol had an OTC equivalent: Look for Zaditor. It’s not cheap, but it’s effective.
Be aware that if you wear contacts, you have to wait 10 minutes after the drops before putting them in.
I get something similar, it starts with a single itch point usually in the inner elbow or underside of the wrist, and then creeps around the whole inner forearm. It’s often preceded by mild swelling of the hands and bursts of burning itchiness.
In any case, I’ve found that 10 mg of loratadine/Claritin makes it go away in 10-20 minutes.
Are you sure you can’t/won’t see a doctor about this? I didn’t find any OTC medication that allowed me to function during spring/summer. I finally got a prescription for Rhinocort and it’s been amazing - the symptoms are pretty much gone, and I haven’t experienced any side effects. I later switched to Nasonex and it’s been just as good.
If I can afford to be drowsy, I prefer Benedryl. I find that a children’s dose is enough for me, and the drowsiness level is less. Not clear-headed enough to drive, but good enough to do stuff around the house.
Zyrtec worked, but was not non-drowsy for me. I’m pretty susceptible to drowsiness.
Allegra works for me when I need non-drowsy, but requires a prescription.
Claritin worked for me at first, but then really couldn’t hack it.
The one thing I haven’t seen mentioned here yet is the neti pot. It can cut down on your need to use any kind of medication. It probably won’t completely solve the problem, but can make a big difference. Search for many other threads where Dopers sing its praises.
I generally like Chlor-Trimeton (or the generic equivalent). It’s been around a long time, and it doesn’t cause quite as much drowsiness as Benedryl. And it works, unlike Claritin.
If I may be a dirty, smelly hippie here and suggest and highly recommend:
The Neti Pot
Give it a shot.